He was more than a little excited. His dream had been to serve as missionary in Africa. The Lord seemed to point him that way three times before in the last 20 years. Each time, the Lord led him to the answer “not yet.”

Meanwhile, a brother pastor was spearheading WELS assistance to Christ the King Lutheran Seminary in Nigeria. The team of volunteer WELS pastors was lacking a man to teach in the last WELS session at the Nigerian seminary. The WELS Liaison then remembered a brother pastor. “Paul Lemke, will you go to Nigeria to teach a session at the seminary?” “Let me check with my church and family. But for me the answer is absolutely, yes.” On 4 January 2008 Pastor Paul Lemke landed in Africa at last. He worked hard, teaching his course plus a make-up course.[slideshow=42]

But wait. There is more. Two Lemkes landed in Africa in January 2008. Prof. Werner Lemke, veteran WELS teacher, principal and world mission Bible Institute professor, landed in Lagos with his cousin Paul. For you see, when Werner and Judy Lemke returned stateside from Malawi, Werner told the Liaison to Nigeria, “If you ever have an opening on the seminary teaching team, count me in.” That opening came in January 2008.  “Werner, are you ready to turn around and go back to Africa for a limited teaching task.” “Absolutely, yes.” And so it came to pass that two Lemkes landed in Nigeria to teach seminary courses.

“How did that work out for the two Lemkes?” you ask. One could hardly find cousins less alike in temperament. But they both are faithful to the Lord and his word, and both love to teach Nigerian seminarians.